Lois Gunden (February 25, 1915 – August 27, 2005) was the fourth of five Americans to be recognized as "

Righteous Among the Nations Righteous Among the Nations ( he, חֲסִידֵי אֻמּוֹת הָעוֹלָם, ; "righteous (plural) of the world's nations") is an honorific used by the State of Israel to describe non-Jews who risked their lives during the Holocaust to sav ...

" by

Yad Vashem Yad Vashem ( he, יָד וַשֵׁם; literally, "a memorial and a name") is Israel's official memorial to the victims of the Holocaust. It is dedicated to preserving the memory of the Jews who were murdered; honoring Jews who fought against th ...

, the Shoah Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Authority of

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

. Gunden was born and raised in

Goshen, Indiana Goshen ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Elkhart County, Indiana, United States. It is the smaller of the two principal cities of the Elkhart-Goshen Metropolitan Statistical Area, which in turn is part of the South Bend-Elkhart-Mishawaka ...

. In 1941, when she was 26 years old, she was teaching English for the

Mennonite Mennonites are groups of Anabaptist Christian church communities of denominations. The name is derived from the founder of the movement, Menno Simons (1496–1561) of Friesland. Through his writings about Reformed Christianity during the Radic ...

Central Committee in southern France when the

Nazi Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...

occupation began. She rescued several Jewish children and Spanish refugees from arrest. In January 1943 she was detained by the

Germans , native_name_lang = de , region1 = , pop1 = 72,650,269 , region2 = , pop2 = 534,000 , region3 = , pop3 = 157,000 3,322,405 , region4 = , pop4 = ...

, only to be released in 1944 in a prisoner exchange. She returned home to Indiana and in 1958 she married a widower, Ernest Clemens. She never had any children of her own, but she gained a step-daughter through her marriage. Lois continued teaching French at

Goshen College Goshen College is a Private college, private Mennonite Church USA, Mennonite Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Goshen, Indiana. It was founded in 1894 as the Elkhart Institute of Science, Industry and the Arts, ...

and

Temple University Temple University (Temple or TU) is a public state-related research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was founded in 1884 by the Baptist minister Russell Conwell and his congregation Grace Baptist Church of Philadelphia then called Ba ...

, and in addition she ministered in the Mennonite Church. On February 27, 2013,

recognized Lois Gunden as Righteous Among the Nations.

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Gunden, Lois American Righteous Among the Nations American Mennonites Anabaptist–Jewish relations People from Goshen, Indiana American humanitarians Women humanitarians Goshen College faculty Temple University faculty 1915 births 2005 deaths 20th-century American educators 21st-century American educators 20th-century American women 21st-century American women